Blogging for the Gray Wolf

A wolf choked to death by a killing snare. This is the face of trapping, so hard to look at but in good conscience can we look away?

Every day I wrestle with what to post or not. The pictures are shocking and gruesome but necessary because they shine a bright light on trapping and snaring. I do it for the wolves who’s howls are being silenced by this brutality.

This post is dedicated to the first wolf trapped in Idaho. She was trapped or snared & killed on Nov 16 in the Dworshak-Elk City Zone in Unit 14, near the old ghost town of Florence. The small female wolf, killed on the second day of Idaho’s first ever wolf trapping season of modern times, weighed 80 lbs and was a subadult (1 1/2 years old). This area used to be the home range of the Florence Wolf Pack, but after heavy-handed control ordered by IDFG, that pack has ceased to exist. Florence is located in the mountains north of the Salmon River, some 15 miles form Riggins. Idaho trappers can kill up to ten wolves in the 2011-12 trapping season which goes from Nov. 15 to March 31.

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Trapped

by Tim Woody

Photo by Tim Woody

This is no way to see a beautiful animal.

We were rambling across the Portage flats in search of a decent trail on Saturday when my friend Mark stopped at the edge of a copse of alders. A few feet into the brush, a large, healthy wolf lowered itself back to the snow, exhausted and in pain, its right front leg crushed by a steel-jawed trap.

The wolf’s struggle was evident for yards around the wooden post to which the trap was anchored. Trampled snow was covered with splintered wood, chunks of ice, and blood spatters. But this once-powerful animal was done fighting. Its eyes watched us, but it was too tired to hold its head up and track our movements. Its breathing was shallow. We wondered how long it had been there facing its slow, painful death. There is no state law mandating how frequently trappers must check their traplines.

We wished we had a pistol, because the scene in front of us was one of dreadful suffering. A merciful bullet would have made everyone feel better. There was nothing we could do except spare the wolf further anxiety by continuing on our way.

The Art of Trapping Idaho’s Wolves

This is an extremely one-sided story glorifying trapping and snaring, and how great it is to pass this cruel & inhumane “hobby” on to your children and grandchildren. Boise State Public Radio missed the boat on this one.

IDFG brought in an Alaskan trapper with plenty of killing experience to spread his knowledge to wolf haters signing up by the hundreds for the trapping course.

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I’ve asked a lot of you over the last several years but this is the gravest crisis wolves have faced since their reintroduction. The wolf hunts have taken an even darker turn with the introduction of snares and traps in Idaho. Speak out for them before it’s too late. They are dying at an alarming rate, 236 dead and climbing. That’s not counting the wolves killed by Wildlife Services in 2011.

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Wolf 253, the beloved Yellowstone Druid wolf named Limpy, who was shot and killed in March 08, on the very day ESA protections were lifted for the gray wolf, by the then Bush Administration.